In the letter, dated July 24, 2009, Martinovich noted that EPV "has experienced a slowdown this year," but said MICG visited EPV Solar "as part of our due diligence process" and said EPV was projecting $49 million in revenue in fiscal 2010, $147 million in 2011 and more than $300 million in 2012.

EPV Solar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 24 of this year. According to court records, the Robbinsville, N.J., firm ceased manufacturing in the middle of 2009 and cut 350 of its 372 employees.

MICG Venture Strategies LLC, a hedge fund and subsidiary of MICG Investment Management, owned a $5.2 million stake of EPV Solar, according to financial statements dated Dec. 31, 2008, obtained by the Daily Press. That comprised 47.5 percent of the $11.6 million fund's holdings that year.

According to bankruptcy filings, MICG and its subsidiaries own about 1 percent of EPV's common stock.

MICG Venture Strategies owns 1.8 million shares of EPV, or about 0.62 percent of the company.

Another MICG hedge fund, MICG Ventures, owns 900,000 shares of EPV. It's unclear at what price MICG Ventures valued those shares. A third MICG hedge fund subsidiary, MICG Partners, reported that 51 percent of its $6.3 million in holdings was invested in MICG Ventures, meaning that it also held a substantial stake in EPV Solar.

In the bankruptcy filing, EPV listed assets of $50 million to $100 million and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million. EPV is being sold to a Turkish firm, and it's unclear what shareholders will receive for their holdings.

MICG's 2008 valuation of its EPV holdings is under investigation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra.

Finra, an industry-funded regulator of U.S. securities firms that operates under the Securities and Exchange Commission, is investigating MICG and Martinovich for a host of securities violations, including fraud. Finra is accusing MICG of improperly valuing its EPV Solar holdings.

Finra has not yet filed formal charges, but served MICG a notice in March that signals it is preparing to.

An attorney for MICG denied on Tuesday that the firm defrauded investors and said it is working with Finra to resolve what he termed "technical issues." He did not return a call to his office Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the accounting firm that performed MICG Investment Management's federally required audit reports in 2007 and 2008 said Wednesday that it did not work for MICG in any other capacity at the time those reports were submitted.

Michael Umscheid, the sole partner of Harbinger PLC, told the Daily Press he did not start working as an accountant for MICG until July or August of 2009, several months after Harbinger completed its last independent audit for the company.

Umscheid is listed on MICG's website as its director of finance but said he has never held that position. Once Umscheid started providing accounting services to MICG, he said, he ceased being the company's independent auditor.

"We couldn't do both sides," he said. "We could either help with accounting or help with the audit, but we couldn't do both."

Umscheid would not comment on Finra's investigation into MICG and Martinovich.

NEWPORT NEWS — The top executive of the Newport News brokerage firm MICG Investment Management LLC is under investigation in a host of securities violations including fraud, according to public documents posted to a securities regulator's website.